This year's exhibition will run from
March 27 - May 22, 2015,
with the special
by-contribution-only Benefit
on
Friday, May 1st,
where everyone who makes a $150 Benefit-Vessel contribution (beginning
Tuesday, March 10th at 10am) can select one of the works in the
exhibition to add to their collection! The vessels are selected in the
order contributions were made, so the earlier you make a contribution,
the earlier you can select your work of art! Below is my piece in the show.

"Eve, Running Away from Eden"

This year's exhibition and benefit features works from
over 100 new artists hand-selected by 20 prominent curators.
See below for a list of this year's incredible line-up of artists & our invited curators, and visit www.smithcenter.org/benefit to learn more.

"Majority of my Facebook friends are artists
and art related people whom I have met before or artists whom I would
love to meet in person one day. Facebook has become a virtual art salon
to me. Of course I would prefer to meet friends and discuss things face
to face but everyone's busy schedule and different location (many of
them are international friends) won't allow us to meet face to face
easily.

Because of the Facebook I feel so close to
far away friends and family as getting everyday information is so easy.
We can discuss our concerns or social issues anytime and pass around
important news instantaneously. It is the biggest power of social media
and I think artists are playing an important part in supporting our
freedom of speech and expression through social media like Facebook.

My “Thank You Artist Friends on Facebook
Project” allowed me to look closer at each of my artist friends. This
project made me think about our crazy everyday life and let me take a
longer time to reflect and question how we process any single image from
the Internet.

I decided to reproduce a small profile
picture of each of my artist friends on a small ceramic tile to be able
to feel his or her presence real and make the moment permanently frozen
in time. I was hoping that those portraits, being the physical images on
tiles, would remain to be “real” despite being shared only virtually
with friends. I had looked thoroughly at each of my artist friend
profile picture on my cell phone and when I finished making a tile
portrait I got a feeling that each time I learned something new about
this person.

I had made porcelain tiles and
sketched/etched each artist profile picture directly on them. There was
no eraser or pre-sketch practice tiles. I prepared only one tile for
each friend and used only a needle tool to make each sketch. I had
really stayed focus and be careful not to damage their "face" which they
chose to share with public on Facebook. As an artist and an art
supporter, I tried my best to focus- during etching of each artist
portrait- on our time together and concentrating my thoughts on the
person and how to show my appreciation and respect for each of them. I
am very happy to have a chance to show those portraits at the exhibition
and share my admiration to their persistence and achievements. I plan
to keep adding the tiles as I make new artist friends on Facebook."